One is an Original Six team, with blood-red uniforms that have long be identifiable, and a logo as famous as any in hockey.

The other is the consummate expansion team with the ultimate modern-day uniform color, teal. The Sharks are not known as much for their tradition as their logo, which is a shark taking a bite out of a hockey stick.

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The Red Wings have won 11 Stanley Cup championships, including four since the Sharks entered the league as a marketing executive's dream in the early 1990s. The Sharks have never won a Stanley Cup. They have never even been to the finals.

But this season, the Sharks entered the postseason as the chic pick to win the Stanley Cup. They finished a point better than the Red Wings in the regular season, and hence have home-ice advantage in a Western Conference semifinal playoffs series that begins late tonight.

The Sharks have long been known for excelling in the regular season and disappearing in the postseason. The Red Wings have just been known for excelling.

Little-by-little, the Sharks' reputation for being fragile mentally is starting to erode. Last spring, they ousted the Red Wings in five games at this very point of the playoffs before losing to Chicago in the Western Conference finals. This season, the Sharks opened with a testy series against the Los Angeles Kings. With the series tied a game each and on the road, San Jose fell behind 4-0 to the Kings. There was this moan of, "Here we go again." That was before the Sharks rallied to win in overtime, eventually taking the series in six games. It was a character test the Sharks passed, and has provided the impetus for more, "The Sharks have changed," buzz.

No longer is so much focus on Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau -- and their playoff failures. Goalie Evgeni Nabokov was equally embattled, but has moved on. He has been replaced by Antti Niemi, who backstopped the Blackhawks to the Stanley Cup title last season. He's been signed to a long-term contract.

It's all made the matchup intriguing. The Sharks are one of the few teams that can nearly match the Red Wings for star power and depth. Like Niemi, Detroit's Jimmy Howard is a young goalie signed for future. Neimi, however, has proven more.

Sharks' coach Todd McClellan, the former Red Wings' assistant, won more games in his first three years as San Jose's coach than any NHL coach in history. In that time, the Sharks have been the Western Conference's top seed twice, and No. 2 seed once.

The Red Wings will be well-rested, and I do think they remain a stronger and deeper team than the Sharks. There are no major injury issues for the Red Wings now that Henrik Zetterberg has returned.

I don't see the home ice mattering that much -- unless it comes down to Game 7. The Red Wings are a very good road team.

The key will be not putting Howard in awkward situations. Because the Sharks are so skilled, they will turn turnovers in goals. They will take advantage on the power play.

In this series, the Red Wings aren't going to get soft goals. Tomas Holmstrom and Johan Franzen will have to move closer to the crease and try to disrupt Niemi, who isn't likely to be a giving sort like Phoenix's Ilya Bryzgalov in the opening round.

The Red Wings have an edge on the fourth line. Justin Abdelkader and Darren Helm are very difficult to play against. They have given the Red Wings a version of the modern, "Grind Line."

One thing about the Sharks - and their fans, who are some of the most rabid in hockey - is they always appear to be waiting for the other shoe to drop.